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with all humility to fulfil the great man’s command.
Meanwhile, the poor, half-naked man stood there with doleful mien
and sunken eyes, his under-jaw shaking, and his hare legs
shivering. When the other bench was brought, he was fastened
more tightly to it, and the floggers resumed their work. At
every blow the gaping wounds became more frightful and
ghastly. Back, sides, and limbs were streaming with blood,
and after each fresh stroke the victim uttered a hollow moan
of pain, which he strove in vain to repress. From the
thronging circle round came the sobs of the martyr’s wife,
mother, and children, besides the frightened, quickly-checked
cry from those whose turn was to come next.
The miserable Governor-General, who in the intoxication of
his power persuaded himself that he was obeying the call of
duty, counted the strokes on his fingers, as he calmly smoked
a cigarette, which an obsequious adjutant lighted in the flame
of a match, held up aloft.
After more than fifty strokes, the peasant ceased to cry or
move. The skilled physician, who placed his services and
knowledge at the disposition of the Provincial Government’s
hospital, stepped forward to the tortured being, felt his pulse,
stooped to listen if his heart were beating, and informed the
representative of the Imperial might that the victim was
unconscious, and that further punishment would be at the risk
of his life.
But the Governor-General, more than ever intoxicated with
his brief authority, maddened like some wild beast at sight of
blood, commanded the punishment to proceed, and the torture
was renewed until the seventy strokes were complete. It seems
as if, from some unknown cause, this seventy were a sacred
number, to fall short of which would be an affront to
justice.
Then the Governor took his cigarette from his mouth and
said, “Enough! Bring out the next!”
That this is not exceptional, but carried on to a frightful
extent, may be seen from these statistics. In two villages in
the district of Slobodski, in the year 1878, no fewer than 618
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